Shouning County (;

Foochow Romanized Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê (BUC for short; ) or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê (), is a Latin alphabet for the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min adopted in the middle of the 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at dif ...

: Sêu-nìng-gâing) is a small county located in the northeast of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

province of People's Republic of China, bordering

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

province to the northeast. It is under the jurisdiction of

Ningde Ningde (; Foochow Romanized: Nìng-dáik), also known as Mindong (; Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dĕ̤ng; lit. East of Fujian), is a prefecture-level city located along the northeastern coast of Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It borders ...

City, An

Eastern Min Eastern Min or Min Dong (, Foochow Romanized: Mìng-dĕ̤ng-ngṳ̄), is a branch of the Min group of Sinitic languages of China. The prestige form and most-cited representative form is the Fuzhou dialect, the speech of the capital of Fujian. ...

dialect of

Min Chinese Min (; BUC: ''Mìng-ngṳ̄'') is a broad group of Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on Leizhou peninsula and Hainan, or assimilated natives of Chaoshan ...

(similar to the

Fuzhou dialect Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...

) is spoken there. There are a number of

covered bridges A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

located there, and of the 100 or so woven timber arch "lounge bridges" throughout China, Shouning County has 19. The county hosted the second international conference on Chinese covered bridges from September 20 to 23, 2007. Beilu opera (also called ''Luantan''), a variety of

Min opera Min opera (; Foochow Romanized: Mìng-kiŏk), also called Fuzhou drama (; Foochow Romanized: Hók-ciŭ-hié), is one of the major traditional opera forms in Fujian Province. It enjoys a good popularity in Fuzhou, Middle Fujian, East Fujian and Nort ...

, is popular in Shouning County. The county spans an area of , and has a population of about 280,000 as of 2019.

History

Shouning County was first established in 1455, under the reign of the

Jingtai Emperor The Jingtai Emperor (21 September 1428 – 14 March 1457), born Zhu Qiyu, was the seventh Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1449 to 1457. The second son of the Xuande Emperor, he was selected in 1449 to succeed his elder brother Emper ...

of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

Administrative divisions

Shouning County comprises eight

towns A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

and six

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

. These are then divided into 205 administrative villages.

Towns

The county's eight towns are , ,

Nanyang Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to: Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean) * Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea ;China * Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...

, , , , , and .

Townships

The county's six townships are , , , , , and .

Climate

Economy

As of 2019, Shouning County's gross domestic product totaled ¥10.06 billion, a 7.7% increase from 2018. Of this,

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

and

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

comprised ¥2.82 billion, up 4.2% from 2018. The county's retail sales in 2019 totaled ¥3.28 billion, up 11.5% from 2018. As of 2019, the county's urban residents experienced a per capita disposable income of ¥28,023, a 9.1% increase from 2018; the county's rural residents had a per capita disposable income of ¥15,359, up 10.2% from 2018.

Notable people

Feng Menglong Feng Menglong (1574–1646), courtesy names Youlong (), Gongyu (), Ziyou (), or Eryou (), was a Chinese historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty. He was born in Changzhou County, now part of Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province. Life Fen ...

, a famous Chinese writer, once served as the

county magistrate County magistrate ( or ) sometimes called local magistrate, in imperial China was the official in charge of the ''xian'', or county, the lowest level of central government. The magistrate was the official who had face-to-face relations with the ...

of Shouning County.

In popular culture

The film "Love on the Covered Bridge" () was shot in Shouning County.

References

External links

Shouning County official site

Covered bridges of Shouning County
(PDF file)
Photo of covered bridge in Shouning CountyArticle about covered bridge symposium

Articles about covered bridges
County-level divisions of Fujian Ningde {{Fujian-geo-stub